All of your stories sound incredible, and I want to read them all. The one I am most interested in would probably be Kismet, but I don't know how attached I would get to the story and how sad I would get when you post the end-that-is-not-an-end.

So my vote would probably be Crow's Coffee, it seems to be the next most interesting one to me, and it is finished.

I vote Pirates!

Ooh, my vote goes to Kismet! I remember the characters from your novel, and I'd love to read more about them. I'm so excited to read more of your fantastic writing!

Wow these stories all sound so good! Really original plots <3333

The last one sounded interesting, but I’d prefer Pirates uwu

Thanks for all your votes so far! I'll make a decision this Friday about which one to post first. I'd also like to say that once the story is finished, I'll have another round of voting for which story you want to read next. And also, although Kismet and Pirates are unfinished, I do intend on finishing them if they are chosen. I just might not be able to update the story twice a week, depending on what happens with my life. I will, however, post *something* every Tuesday and Friday, even if it isn't a section of the current short story! If one of the unfinished ones is chosen, and I can't write a new section in time, I'll just upload one of the scenes from my rewritten novel. There are only a few of those so far, though, which is why it wasn't one of the original options to vote for.

~Starseeker 

What's up y'all! It's Friday, which means an update. Here are the total tallied votes:

Crow's Coffee: 0

Pirates: 2

Kismet: 2

As you can see, there was a tie! Kitten and Quill, since you two are OG readers, I was going to go with whatever you guys voted on, but you voted on different stories, so that doesn't work. So I made the executive decision to start posting Pirates. I made this decision for several reasons. 1, it has more written and edited parts than Kismet does right now. 2, the story arc is shorter than Kismet's, so I can post another story sooner! I'll be posting a chapter every Tuesday and Friday from now until the end of the story, starting with Chapter 1 today. Right now, Pirates has 4 finished chapters and 1 more in progress, though I think it'll end up being about 7-9 chapters long. Without further ado, here's the into to Pirates! (A note: originally, I was going to do an intro, explaining the world that the story takes place in, and all the characters within it, since they were originally from my novel. But then, while I was rereading it, I realized that although the characters, settings, and relationships are from my novel, Pirates reads well as a stand-alone. It may be fun to make the connections to the original characters, but it isn't necessary for comprehension or enjoyment of the story. I might do an intro for Kismet and I'll definitely do one for Crow's Coffee, but Pirates stands on its own two legs just fine.)

~~~

CHAPTER 1 : BEGINNINGS

In Which Jasak Finds Another One

He spread his hands out in a non-threatening gesture. “We just fished you out— it’d be rude to jump back in so soon. Why don’t you come on down.”

I shook my head. “I know what pirates do to women they capture.”

“Do I really look like a worse option than drowning?”

I looked at him, really looked. Dark tousled hair, tanned skin, warm smile, friendly amber eyes. The ship rocked and I wobbled on the rail.

He held out a gloved hand. “What do you say?”

I hesitated a moment more, then shook my head. 

He frowned. “Darn it. I’m losing my touch.” He shook his head, as if clearing his mind, then let his hand drop, running it through his hair. “Hold on for just one second,” he said, then turned around and yelled to the others on the ship, “Blaiyre! Can you come help me out for a second here?”

A girl pokes her head out of the main cabin of the ship. “What do you want, Jasak? Did you get a splinter in your foot again?”

Someone in the crew laughs.

The man— Jasak— frowns in fake-anger. “That was one time, Blaiyre! One. Time.” He shakes a finger for emphasis. 

Blaiyre shrugs. “Whatever you say, bro.”

Jasak sighs. “Can you just come here for a second?”

Blaiyre emerges fully out of the cabin, shutting the door behind her. She stops beside Jasak and sets her hand on her hip in an approximation of a sassy pose. She looks me up and down, then sighs.

“Another one, Jasak? Really?”

I jolt in shock. Another one?

Jasak sighs. “Blaiyre, please. She won’t talk to me because I’m a man.”

Blaiyre sighs again. “You’ve probably just intimidated her into silence. Gods, you’re like ten feet tall, it’s a wonder anyone ever hears what you say.”

She holds out a hand and, when I don’t take it, she grabs my wrist and tugs me off my perch on the rail. I land with a small thump on the ground, unable to move these legs fast enough to catch me.

“Blaiyre!” Jasak scolds. “Don’t be so rough! I literally just fished her out of the ocean, for gods’ sake.”

Blaiyre rolls her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, Jasak. She’s fine. Look at her.” She tugs me up and I stand awkwardly. Jasak does look at me then, but only for a second before blushing furiously and looking away again.

“Blaiyre, she’s not wearing clothes,” he squeaks out as if he’s just realized this, covering his eyes with his hands. 

Blaiyre rolls her eyes again. “Of course not, dummy. You just fished her out of the ocean, remember? Her hair covers everything important, anyway. Just give her your coat and then I’ll take her inside and she’ll stop inflicting her nakedness on your poor eyes.”

Jasak moves the hands on his face so we can see that he’s scowling. 

“What a great sister, having sympathy,” he says, but there’s no malice behind it. He shrugs off his dark green coat and holds it out blindly, keeping one hand over his eyes the whole time. Blaiyre takes it and drapes it carelessly over my shoulders, and I reach up and pull it tighter around my form. Blairye waves at Jasak sarcastically, and then takes my elbow and tugs me towards the cabin she came out of. I trail behind her, stumbling over these clumsy human legs. Gods, I wish I were back in the water already. It hasn’t even been an hour yet and I’m already regretting the loss of my tail.

Blaiyre swings the cabin door wide open and pulls me inside, shutting the door behind us. The sound of the pounding waves is deafened, and I immediately miss it. 

At the sound of the door, a girl looks up from a massively burly guy sitting on the table. The girl is cute, with short curly brown hair, hazel eyes, and a smattering of freckles dotting her face and arms. Or should I say, arm— one of her arms is gripping the man’s shoulder, holding him steady, while the other stops at the elbow and is replaced by a wicked-looking metal hook. As the girl stands, she wipes the hook off on her leather apron, and I swallow nervously as I see what she’s wiping off.

Blood. 

~~~

So, that's chapter 1! This is the shortest chapter, don't worry. They're all longer from here on out. If you noticed the italics at the beginning of the chapter, it was because I was originally writing off a prompt, which is the italicized words. It also jumps into present-tense awkwardly, since the prompt was in past tense and I prefer present. Anyway, feedback and questions are always appreciated! Constructive criticism is welcomed, whether it be plot-wise, grammar-wise, or something in between.  

~Starseeker 

for me, it's going to Crows Coffee.

Crows Coffee for me

What's up y'all! Star here, again. I don't know what exactly happened to my first post-- if I didn't hit submit, if the Admins realized my error before I did, or if it's still in the process of review (since it's looong), but I'm submitting this one instead! @Admins, if the original post by "Starseeker-FriUpdate" is still sitting in your Admin inbox (or however it works), just disregard it, please.

I was originally going to post the results of the voting, but as soon as I submitted my post containing the first chapter of Pirates (since at the time there were 2 votes for Pirates, 2 for Kismet, and 0 for Crow's Coffee), the page reloaded and more votes appeared. So. I'll officially take a second look at the votes at around 6:30 central time today, and post my decision and the first chapter of the chosen story! That means that you have about 2 and a half hours to submit your votes. I'll wait for the comments to all show up before I count them, but I'll have the chapter and information posted before I go to bed tonight (keep in mind, though, that I am quite an insomniac <which I guess is another play on my name?> so I stay up until about 1 am). If you could, I'd like you to submit your name with your comment. There's nothing wrong with commenting the title of the story, but I do like knowing who's reading and who's interested in what. If there's a tie, it couldactually influence my decision as well. But if you've already submitted a vote, don't worry about trying to label it as yours; just keep it in mind for the next round of voting. Alright y'all, I'll check back in about 2 hours!

(Author's Note: my apologies! This was supposed to be posted about an hour ago, but I got caught up in watching Marie Lu's live webcast through YWP NaNoWriMo. I've adjusted the times accordingly.)

~Starseeker